High-Water Mark

Russia's tide was no longer rising in expansionist flood. Winds of ambition and intransigence might blow again from Moscow; carelessness or stupidity or complacency might breach again, and wider, the West's dikes. But last week it looked as if the worst had passed, and that Russia was resigned--for a while, at least--to boundaries of power which the rest of the world would consider safe.

Almost everywhere, from Germany to China, Russia and its friends had lost the ball. Secretary Byrnes's great September speech at Stuttgart had clearly announced U.S. determination not to abandon Europe and to work out a constructive solution for Germany. Communist defeat in the Berlin elections was followed last week by a new Russian policy which clearly placed the urgent needs of Russia's people above thwarted external ambitions. That the Russian effort to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Britain had also failed was attested by the repudiation of American neo-isolationists of the Wallace school and by last week's speeches of British leaders (see below).

The turn of the Russian tide had diverse signs: Andrei Vishinsky, in token of the new Russian conciliatory line at the U.N. Assembly, went to Mass; Chou En-lai went to Nanking; an order for removal of the Zeiss factory went to Jena (see FOREIGN NEWS). Noting the signs, the West would do well not to crow in triumph; at best, democracy had won only time to put its own addled house in order, clear up its own inconsistencies and injustices. But in winning that time, the policy of "patience and firmness" to Russia had paid off.

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